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Brad Pitt amused attendees at the Palm Springs International Film Festival on Saturday night (03Jan15) by breaking into an impromptu song to teach fans and critics alike how to properly pronounce David Oyelowo's name. The Hollywood superstar helped to produce Oyelowo's new Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. biopic, Selma, through his Plan B Productions company, and he took it upon himself at the California event to teach others how to say the British actor's Nigerian last name.
Before introducing the Lee Daniels' The Butler star to the stage to present him with the Breakthrough Performance Award (Male), Pitt said, "I know that there is one lingering question in the back of your minds and that question is, how the hell do you pronounce his name? It's all right, I've been there, and I'm here to help."
He proceeded to lead the crowd in a sing-along pronunciation of Oyelowo's name to the tune of popular soccer chant, Ole, Ole, Ole.
Turning serious, he then hailed Oyelowo as "a man whose name will one day be synonymous with (Sidney) Poitier and (Sir Laurence) Olivier."
As a flattered Oyelowo stepped up to the platform to accept his prize, he quipped, "You know you've 'broken through' when Brad Pitt sings your name!"
The ceremony also featured touching tributes from Shirley MacLaine, who presented Boyhood director Richard Linklater with the Sonny Bono Visionary Award, while Laura Dern was on hand to honour Reese Witherspoon with the Chairman's Award, and Robert Downey, Jr. celebrated the career of his The Judge co-star and Icon Award recipient Robert Duvall, who was so moved by the honour, he struggled to fight back tears.

IFC Films
As the winds of award show nominations pick up, you won't be surprised to find 12 Years a Slave at the top of every list. But the Academy, the Golden Globes, and the various other captains of the circuit are inclined to overlook some of our smaller, more personal favorites in lieu of the big, grand, and wholly unavoidable awardable pictures like Steven McQueen's American slavery epic. That is not to rob 12 Years of Slave of its due credit — the film absolutely deserves as much awards attention as it is getting. It's simply the sort of movie that you know will get awards attention right out of the gate... whereas pictures just as pristine such as Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig's Frances Ha, likely won't be the center of attention come Oscar night. But that's what the Independent Spirit Awards are for: to recognize the movies that we cherish with intimacy rather than with grandeur. Among them are Frances Ha, new release Nebraska, Robert Redford's nearly wordless All Is Lost (also a viable candidate for the Academy, due to its own dezzling veneer), the Coen Bros' upcoming Inside Llewyn Davis, and, yes, of course, 12 Years a Slave.
Check out the full list of nods below.
BEST FEATURE 12 Years A Slave All Is Lost Frances Ha Inside Llewyn Davis Nebraska
BEST LEAD FEMALE Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine Julie Delpy, Before Midnight Gaby Hoffman, Crystal Fairy Brie Larson, Short Term 12 Shailene Woodley, The Spectacular Now
BEST LEAD MALE Bruce Dern, Nebraska Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years A Slave Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis Michael B. Jordan, Fruitvale Station Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club Robert Redford, All Is Lost
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE Melonie Diaz, Fruitvale StationSally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years A Slave Yolanda Ross, Go For Sisters June Squibb, Nebraska
BEST SUPPORTING MALE Michael Fassbender, 12 Years A Slave Will Forte, Nebraska James Gandolfini, Enough Said Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club Keith Stanfield, Short Term 12
BEST DIRECTOR Shane Carruth, Upstream Color J.C. Chandor, All Is Lost Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave Jeff Nichols, Mud Alexander Payne, Nebraska
BEST FIRST FEATUREBlue Caprice Concussion Fruitvale Station Una Noche Wadjda
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD Computer Chess Crystal Fairy Museum Hours Pit Stop This Is Martin Bonner
BEST SCREENPLAY Woody Allen, Blue Jasmine Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater, Before Midnight Nicole Holofcener, Enough Said Scott Neustadter &amp; Michael H. Weber, The Spectacular Now John Ridley, 12 Years A Slave
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY Lake Bell, In A World Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Don Jon Bob Nelson, Nebraska Jill Soloway, Afternoon Delight Michael Starburry, The Inevitable Defeat Of Mister &amp; Pete
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHYSean Bobbitt, 12 Years A Slave Benoit Debie, Spring Breakers Bruno Delbonnel, Inside Llewyn Davis Frank G. Demarco, All Is Lost Matthias Grunsky, Computer Chess
BEST EDITING Shane Carruth &amp; David Lowery, Upstream Color Jem Cohen &amp; Marc Vives, Museum Hours Jennifer Lame, Frances Ha Cindy Lee, Una Noche Nat Sanders, Short Term 12
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM A Touch Of Sin Blue Is The Warmest ColorGloriaThe Great Beauty The Hunt
BEST DOCUMENTARYThe Act Of Killing After Tiller Gideon's ArmyThe Square Twenty Feet From Stardom
PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARDToby Halbrooks &amp; James M. JohnsonJacob JaffkeAndrea RoaFerderick Thornton
TRUER THAN FICTION AWARDS Kalyanee Mam, A River Changes Course Jason Osder, Let The Fire Burn Stephanie Spray &amp; Pancho Valez, Manakamana
SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARDS Aaron Douglas Johnston, My Sisters' Quinceanera Shaka King, Newlyweeds Madeleine Olnek, The Foxy Merkins
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARDMud

Critically-acclaimed drama 12 Years A Slave looks set to dominate the 2014 Independent Spirit Awards after landing seven nominations. The period movie, about a free black man from New York who is abducted and sold into slavery, has landed filmmaker Steve McQueen a nod for Best Director, while Chiwetel Ejiofor is shortlisted for Best Male Lead, and Michael Fassbender and Lupita Nyong'o will compete in the supporting actor and actress categories, respectively.
12 Years A Slave has also scored nods for screenplay and cinematography, and the film will also be up against All Is Lost, Frances Ha, Inside Llewyn Davis and Nebraska for the Best Feature title.
Father-and-son movie Nebraska is another multiple nominee, earning five mentions - Alexander Payne is up for Best Director, alongside McQueen, J.C. Chandor for All Is Lost, Jeff Nichols for Mud and Shane Carruth for Upstream Color; and Bruce Dern will battle for Best Male Lead, against Ejiofor, Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis), Michael B. Jordan (Fruitvale Station), Robert Redford (All Is Lost) and Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club).
Meanwhile, the Best Female Lead contenders include Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine, Julie Delpy for Before Midnight, and Shailene Woodley for her role in The Spectacular Now.
Among the other notable nominations: James Gandolfini has been shortlisted posthumously for Best Supporting Male for his performance in his last film, romantic comedy Enough Said, and the Best First Screenplay category features Lake Bell for In A World and Joseph Gordon-Levitt for Don Jon.
Jeff Nichols' Mud will receive the Robert Altman Award, which recognises the director, casting director and ensemble cast of a movie.
To be eligible for an Independent Spirit nod, all films must have been made for less than $20 million (£13.3 million). Movies must have either screened at a major film festival, including Sundance, Toronto or the Los Angeles Film Festival, or run for at least a week at a commercial theatre.
The winners will be unveiled at a ceremony in California on 1 March (14), on the eve of the 2014 Academy Awards.

Lions Gate via Everett Collection
When we last left our heroes, they had conquered all opponents in the 74th Annual Hunger Games, returned home to their newly refurbished living quarters in District 12, and fallen haplessly to the cannibalism of PTSD. And now we're back! Hitching our wagons once again to laconic Katniss Everdeen and her sweet-natured, just-for-the-camera boyfriend Peeta Mellark as they gear up for a second go at the Capitol's killing fields.
But hold your horses — there's a good hour and a half before we step back into the arena. However, the time spent with Katniss and Peeta before the announcement that they'll be competing again for the ceremonial Quarter Quell does not drag. In fact, it's got some of the film franchise's most interesting commentary about celebrity, reality television, and the media so far, well outweighing the merit of The Hunger Games' satire on the subject matter by having Katniss struggle with her responsibilities as Panem's idol. Does she abide by the command of status quo, delighting in the public's applause for her and keeping them complacently saturated with her smiles and curtsies? Or does Katniss hold three fingers high in opposition to the machine into which she has been thrown? It's a quarrel that the real Jennifer Lawrence would handle with a castigation of the media and a joke about sandwiches, or something... but her stakes are, admittedly, much lower. Harvey Weinstein isn't threatening to kill her secret boyfriend.
Through this chapter, Katniss also grapples with a more personal warfare: her devotion to Gale (despite her inability to commit to the idea of love) and her family, her complicated, moralistic affection for Peeta, her remorse over losing Rue, and her agonizing desire to flee the eye of the public and the Capitol. Oftentimes, Katniss' depression and guilty conscience transcends the bounds of sappy. Her soap opera scenes with a soot-covered Gale really push the limits, saved if only by the undeniable grace and charisma of star Lawrence at every step along the way of this film. So it's sappy, but never too sappy.
In fact, Catching Fire is a masterpiece of pushing limits as far as they'll extend before the point of diminishing returns. Director Francis Lawrence maintains an ambiance that lends to emotional investment but never imposes too much realism as to drip into territories of grit. All of Catching Fire lives in a dreamlike state, a stark contrast to Hunger Games' guttural, grimacing quality that robbed it of the life force Suzanne Collins pumped into her first novel.
Once we get to the thunderdome, our engines are effectively revved for the "fun part." Katniss, Peeta, and their array of allies and enemies traverse a nightmare course that seems perfectly suited for a videogame spin-off. At this point, we've spent just enough time with the secondary characters to grow a bit fond of them — deliberately obnoxious Finnick, jarringly provocative Johanna, offbeat geeks Beedee and Wiress — but not quite enough to dissolve the mystery surrounding any of them or their true intentions (which become more and more enigmatic as the film progresses). We only need adhere to Katniss and Peeta once tossed in the pit of doom that is the 75th Hunger Games arena, but finding real characters in the other tributes makes for a far more fun round of extreme manhunt.
But Catching Fire doesn't vie for anything particularly grand. It entertains and engages, having fun with and anchoring weight to its characters and circumstances, but stays within the expected confines of what a Hunger Games movie can be. It's a good one, but without shooting for succinctly interesting or surprising work with Katniss and her relationships or taking a stab at anything but the obvious in terms of sending up the militant tyrannical autocracy, it never even closes in on the possibility of being a great one.
3.5/5
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Alec Baldwin's accused stalker has been ordered to spend 30 days behind bars for contempt of court after continually interrupting proceedings in her ongoing trial. French Canadian actress Genevieve Sabourin is currently facing charges of bombarding the 55-year-old actor with emails and voicemails, and making unwelcome visits to his Big Apple homes after enjoying a meal with him in 2010.
Baldwin denied ever engaging in a romantic relationship with Sabourin during testimony in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday (12Nov13), and called her alleged pestering "nightmarish" as he broke down on the stand.
His claims prompted a number of outbursts from the 41-year-old suspect, who loudly accused the actor of "lying" on multiple occasions. Judge Robert Mandelbaum ordered her to stay quiet and threatened to hold her in contempt of court for her actions, before she was bundled out of the courtroom by her lawyer, Todd Spodek.
When she returned to court on Wednesday (13Nov13), she was marched off to jail after disobeying Judge Mandelbaum's warnings by interrupting her own attorney.
In another trial twist, movie producer Martin Bregman has also accused Baldwin of lying under oath after the actor told the court he only met Sabourin for dinner as a favour to the veteran filmmaker, who had reportedly been having an affair with the woman.
The former 30 Rock star, who grew emotional during the hearing, claimed 41-year-old Sabourin was the married Scarface producer's longtime mistress - an allegation that stunned Bregman and prompted him to speak out to the New York Daily News.
He says, "He's lying... To sidestep any involvement with (Sabourin), he made up a report."
Branding the move "pretty stupid", he added, "I'm 87 years old and that (reports of an affair with younger woman Sabourin) is very flattering, but that's all it is."
Tuesday's court proceedings also featured testimony from Baldwin's wife Hilaria, who told the court she once tried to reason with Sabourin over the phone in a bid to persuade her to leave the couple alone.
Recalling the conversation, Hilaria, who wed Baldwin last year (12), said, "She starts shrieking at me, 'You b**ch! You b**tch! You b**ch! You b**ch!' Over and over again."
The trial continues.

Veteran movie star Bruce Dern is convinced shooting John Wayne in the back in The Cowboys wrecked his film career because he became known as the man who killed The Duke. The 77 year old was on course to join pals like Jack Nicholson and Robert Redford on Hollywood's A-list but struggled to find work after his character, Long Hair, shot Wayne's Wil Anderson in the 1972 western.
He recalls, "It was 8.30 in the morning when we did the scene, Wayne was incredibly s**tfaced (drunk) on Wild Turkey, a bottle and a half. I could smell it on him, and he leans into me and says, 'Oh, how they're gonna hate you for this'."
Dern, who is the father of actress Laura Dern, reveals Wayne was right and for years strangers would approach him in the street and say, "You killed my buddy!"
Movie fans are starting to come up to him in the street again, but this time they are full of compliments for his latest role in acclaimed new Alexander Payne movie Nebraska, in which he plays a deluded old man who believes he's won $1 million and must travel from his home in Montana to Nebraska to collect the money.
He tells Rolling Stone magazine, "You walk down the street and people come up and shake your hand. I never had this happen except for when I killed John Wayne and they they just go... 'You f**king b**tard!'"
Dern picked up the Best Actor award at France's Cannes Film Festival for his role in Nebraska and now he is a frontrunner for a top Oscar prize next year (14).

British director Steve Mcqueen's critically-acclaimed new drama 12 Years A Slave has scored a trio of top nominations for the 2013 Gotham Independent Film Awards. The movie, based on a true story, stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as a free black man from New York who is abducted and sold into slavery, and his performance has earned him a nod for Best Actor. He will face competition from Matthew McConaughey for his role in Dallas Buyers Club, Oscar Isaac for Inside Llewyn Davis, Robert Redford for All Is Lost and Isaiah Washington for Blue Caprice.
McQueen's leading lady, Lupita Nyong'o, has also gained recognition in the Breakthrough Actor category, which includes Kill Your Darlings' Dane DeHaan and Michael B. Jordan for Fruitvale Station, while the picture itself is shortlisted for Best Feature, against Inside Llewyn Davis, Ain't Them Bodies Saints, Upstream Color and Richard Linklater's Before Midnight.
Meanwhile, the stars mentioned for Best Actress include Scarlett Johansson in Don Jon, Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine, and Shailene Woodley in The Spectacular Now.
The Gotham Independent Film Awards will take place in New York on 2 December (13), when Forest Whitaker and Linklater are also due to receive career tributes.
The Big Apple prizegiving traditionally kicks off the film world's awards season with winners often going on to land Oscar nominations and wins.

Zac Efron celebrated his 26th birthday on Friday (18Oct13) with a celebrity boys night out. Weeks after reports surfaced suggesting the actor had completed a stint in rehab earlier this year (13), the Hairspray heartthrob was spotted celebrating in Los Angeles.
Efron enjoyed a low-key bash at Hollywood hotspot Chateau Marmont, and was joined by friends Robert Pattinson, Joe Jonas and Michael B. Jordan, his co-star in the upcoming film That Awkward Moment.
Prior to the party, Efron was spotted playing golf with his father in Carlsbad, California.
The actor took to Twitter.com to thank his fans for their birthday wishes and support, and wrote, "My birthday wish was for all of you to have health and happiness. Love you guys and thanks to everyone for all the birthday messages and videos! I've never felt more loved."